# Sentient beings (Buddhism)

In Buddhism, sentient beings are beings with consciousness, sentience, or in some contexts life itself.

## Quotes

* The Buddha preaches the Law with a single voice, but each living being understands it in his own way.
** Ratnākara in Vimalakirti Sutra, Chapter I, as translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN: 0231106572.
* Ratnākara, the various kinds of living beings are in themselves the Buddha lands (buddhakṣetra) of the bodhisattva. Why so? Because it is by converting various beings to the teachings that the bodhisattvas acquire their Buddha lands. It is by persuading various beings and overcoming their objections that the bodhisattvas acquire their Buddha lands. It is by inducing the various living beings to enter into the Buddha wisdom in such-and-such a land that they acquire their Buddha lands. It is by inducing the various living beings to develop the capacity for bodhisattva practices in such-and-such a land that they acquire their Buddha lands. Why is this? Because the bodhisattva's acquisition of a pure land is wholly due to his having brought benefit to living beings. Suppose a man proposes to build a mansion on a plot of open land. He may do so as he wishes without hindrance. But if he tries to build it in the empty air, he will never be successful. It is the same with the bodhisattvas. It is because they wish to help others to achieve success that they take their vow to acquire Buddha lands. Their vow to acquire Buddha lands in not founded on emptiness.
** Gautama Buddha to Ratnākara, on the practices carried out by bodhisattvas in purifying the lands. Vimalakirti Sutra, Chapter I, as translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN: 0231106572.
* It is very dangerous to ignore the suffering of any sentient being.
** Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, interview in Worlds in Harmony: Dialogues on Compassionate Action, Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1992, pp. 20-21.
* Bodhicitta is the medicine which revives and gives life to every sentient being who even hears of it.
** Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom (1998) edited by Renuka Singh
* According to Buddhism, individuals are masters of their own destiny. And all living beings are believed to possess the nature of the Primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, the potential or seed of enlightenment, within them. So our future is in our own hands. What greater free will do we need?
** Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, answering the question: "Do sentient beings have free will?" in Dzogchen : The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection (2001), p. 168, ISBN 155939157X.
* The universe that we inhabit and our shared perception of it are the results of a common karma. Likewise, the places that we will experience in future rebirths will be the outcome of the karma that we share with the other beings living there. The actions of each of us, human or nonhuman, have contributed to the world in which we live. We all have a common responsibility for our world and are connected with everything in it. ... If the love within your mind is lost and you see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education or material comfort you have, only suffering and confusion will ensue.
** Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, 2004
* The creatures that inhabit this earth-be they human beings or animals-are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world.
** Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, 2004
* I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, that together we succeed in building a better world through human understanding and love, and that in doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings.
** Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, [Nobel lecture (11 December 1989).
* You must give up eating meat, for it is very wrong to eat the flesh of our parent sentient beings.
** Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin, translated by Matthieu Ricard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), p. 541.
* Buddhas bear the same relation to sentient beings as water does to ice. Ice, like stone or brick, cannot flow. But when it melts it flows freely in conformity with its surroundings. So long as one remains in a state of delusion he is like ice. Upon realization he becomes as exquisitely free as water. And remember, there is no ice which does not return to water. So you will understand there is no difference between ordinary beings and Buddhas except for one thing - delusion. When it is dissolved they are identical.
** Bassui Tokushō, Letter to the abbess of Shinryu-ji
* All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measure, names, traces and comparisons. It is that which you see before you - begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error. It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things, but that sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp Mind. Even though they do their utmost for a full aeon, they will not be able to attain it. They do not know that, if they put a stop to conceptual thought and forget their anxiety, the Buddha will appear before them, for this Mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings. It is not the less for being manifested in ordinary beings, nor is it greater for being manifest in the Buddhas.
** Huangbo Xiyun, as quoted in The Zen Teachings of Huang Po : On the Transmission of Mind (1958) by John Blofeld, p. 29

## See also

* Ahimsa
* Buddhist vegetarianism