What is a Sentient Being?
Who are the objects of the care of a great compassion bodhisattva? Perfected in wisdom, buddha emanated bodhisattva’s activity is toward sentient beings of different categories. Sentient beings, or living beings, are those who are not yet enlightened or awakened to the illusory nature of ordinary reality. Sentient beings exist in many forms, realms, and locations and even in formless realms. The lost ones, the suffering sentient beings, are not actively being nurtured in development because they are not prepared enough to receive specialized care. As healing by myriad methods reverses damage to inner levels of suffering beings, gradually all of them will become capable of receiving direct care. In a technical sense, a careful practitioner is in a category of beings that are cared for and nurtured in the development stage and is therefore not a sentient being. However, sometimes a practitioner is a sentient being, and sometimes a practitioner is not a sentient being. The one who is stro...