sentient beings

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sems can, 'gro ba, yid can


Sentient Being (sems can). Any living being in one of the six realms who has not attained liberation. [RY]

Sentient beings (sattva, sems can; also jagat, 'gro ba). Any beings who have not yet attained Buddhahood. [RY]

"The luminous Great Perfection teaches that Samantabhadra's enlightenment in original ground of liberation is recognizing the natural face, thus dispersing direct causes for these eight consciousnesses into dharmadhatu this very moment the ground-appearance of the spontaneously present nature manifests from the sugatagarbha, the ground of primordially pure essence. When this ground-appearance is obscured by coemergent ignorance and conceptualized into perceiver and perceived, the eight gates of outward luminosity manifest, like a dream, from the precious sphere of Spontaneous Presence, and confusion into samsara is unceasing. This is what is called "sentient beings". " ...(from The Light of Wisdom, Vol. 1, pg. 81).