Significance of Sentience

Sentience in Tibetan Buddhism encompasses the quality of being aware or conscious, reflecting the capacity for thought and feeling that distinguishes sentient beings from insentient objects. It is viewed as the Soul's eternal form and is integral to understanding the nature of conscious experience. Additionally, sentience relates to sensory perception, which differs from the intellect, and plays a crucial role in discussions of causes and effects within the teaching of Mahayana.

Synonyms: Awareness, Consciousness, Perception, Sensitivity, Cognizance, Sentiency, Vigilance, Responsiveness, Feeling, Sensibility

The below excerpts are indicatory and do represent direct quotations or translations. It is your responsibility to fact check each reference.

Buddhist concept of 'Sentience'

Buddhism Books

In Buddhism, Sentience encompasses consciousness and sensory perception, distinguishing sentient beings from insentient objects, reflecting the soul's eternal quality of awareness, and influencing the understanding of experiences and causality.

Significance in Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism):
Tibetan Buddhism Books

From: Tattvasangraha [with commentary]

(1) Sentience is synonymous with intelligence, and primordial matter is considered insentient, meaning it cannot be considered intelligent, according to the arguments presented.[1] (2) 'Sentience' is the underlying quality that continues through all the changing states of the soul, even as experiences like pleasure and pain come and go, showing the continuous nature of awareness.[2] (3) This is the capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. It is suggested that if primordial matter possesses intellect, it should also possess this quality.[3] (4) Sentience is described as being of the same nature as Cognition, and it is considered to be one and the same, without any distinction among cognitions of the same nature.[4] (5) A condition of perceiving or feeling, often in relation to the nature of the soul and its experiences.[5]

Tibetan Buddhism includes schools such as Nyingma, Kadampa, Kagyu and Gelug. Their primary canon of literature is divided in two broad categories: The Kangyur, which consists of Buddha’s words, and the Tengyur, which includes commentaries from various sources. Esotericism and tantra techniques (vajrayana) are collected indepently.

Significance in Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism):
Mahayana Books

From: Shurangama Sutra (with commentary) (English)

(1) The capacity for thought and feeling, distinguishing sentient beings from insentient objects.[6]

Mahayana is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sutras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajnaparamita sutras.

Significance in Buddhism (general):

From: Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies

(1) The idea that plants might have some form of sentience is not altogether alien even to South Asian articulations of Buddhism, and is relevant to the question of moral standing.[7]