joint tenancy

"Love consists in this...
 that two solitudes
 protect and touch and greet each other."

~Rainer Maria Rilke~

Wordless Wednesday: A Study of Orchids and Light

Sentience

" Just as you have the instinctive natural desire to be happy and overcome suffering, so do all sentient beings; just as you have the right to fulfill this innate aspiration, so do all sentient beings. So on what exact grounds do you discriminate?"

~Dalai Lama~ 

(Head of the Dge-lugs-pa order of Tibetan Buddhists, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.)

So, are dogs or other animals sentient beings?
Here is a definition....
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences.  Philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think ("reason") from the ability to feel ("sentience"). In  western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences. For Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights.
What do you think? Is this an animal who has no purpose, cannot think or feel, have experiences?

I think not.

(Thank you Shorty, Max and Cutter for allowing me to capture your buddha nature with my camera.)