SENTIENT BEINGS ARE LIVING BEINGS THAT HAVE A CONSCIOUSNESS AND CAN THINK AND FEEL FOR OTHER LIFE. IF YOU OBSERVE TWO BIRDS GATHERING EVERY PERFECT TWIG AND SOFT PIECE OF GRASS AND FUZZ FOR DAYS AND WEEKS SO THEY CAN MAKE A COZY HOME FOR THEIR BABIES THEN THAT IS AN CLEAR EXPRESSION OF KINDNESS AND CARING WHICH EVEN SOME HUMANS LACK. THEIR DEDICATION AND WISDOM TO SIT ON THE EGGS FOR WEEKS NEVER LEAVING THEM ALONE IN ORDER TO GIVE THE WARMTH NECESSARY TO HATCH THEIR BABIES AND THEN HUNT DAILY FOR FOOD FOR THEM IS A SIGN OF DEDICATION AND LOVE THAT IS TO ENVY. IF YOU OBSERVE ELEPHANTS WHO WORK TOGETHER TO PROTECT THEIR FAMILY AND THEN MOURN FOR DAYS OVER THE DEATH OF A FAMILY MEMBER WHILE STAYING CLOSE TO IT THEN YOU CANNOT DENY THAT ANIMALS FEEL MORE THAN MANY HUMANS. IF YOU OBSERVE HOW A FAMILY POD OF DOLPHINS LIVES TOGETHER FOR LIFE AND HOW ONE FEMALE DOLPHIN IS ALWAYS PRESENT TO MIDWIFE THE BIRTH OF ANOTHER DOLPHINS BABY AND YOU SEE HOW THEY SWIM AROUND IN JOY TOGETHER AFTERWARD THE BIRTH THEN YOU KNOW THAT THEY HAVE BEAUTIFUL FEELINGS OF LOVE AND CONNECTION TO EACH OTHER. THE WAY NATURE INTERACTS IS SOMETHING SO DIVINE AND A CLEAR SIGN OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND KINDNESS WHICH HUMANS COULD ASPIRE TO HAVE. WITNESSING THE KIND AND LOVING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN ANIMALS IS SO BEAUTIFUL TO ME THAT IT OFTEN BRINGS TEARS OF JOY TO MY EYES WITH LONGING THAT HUMANS COULD BE THE SAME. DIVINE NATURE AND ANIMALS DESERVE THE SAME CARE AND KINDNESS THAT A CHILD DESERVES BECAUSE THEY ARE INNOCENT AND AT THE MERCY OF HUMANS. WHEN WE CHERISH LIFE WE CHERISH OURSELVES.
PHOTO BY GREGORY COLBERT
JANE GOODALL IS AN INSPIRATION TO MANKIND AND OFFERS HOPE TO HUMANITY TO UNDERSTAND THE BEAUTY OF ANIMALS AND THEIR ABILITY TO FEEL LIKE HUMANS AND LIVE IN FAMILIES WITH THEIR OWN HIERARCHY, HABITS AND PERSONALITIES. JANE’S KINDNESS AND SENSITIVITY HAS ALWAYS INSPIRED ME AND MADE ME FEEL SANITY IN A WORLD THAT OFTEN LACKED KINDNESS, CONSCIOUSNESS AND SENTIENT FEELINGS TOWARDS OTHER LIFE. I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR HER STORIES AND HER LIFE EXPERIENCES WITH ANIMALS WHICH SHE HAS SHARED WITH THE WORLD THROUGHOUT HER LIFETIME.
Jane Goodall is a primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist. She is the first to have observed and reported that chimpanzees use tools for feeding, deeply transforming the human-animal relationships. Today, Jane is committed to the crucial mission of alerting the public about the dangers our planet is exposed to and of changing individual behaviour towards a greater awareness of our environment. For more information on her activities, visit the Jane Goodall Institute : http://www.janegoodall.fr
n Buddhism, sentient beings are beings with consciousness, sentience, or in some contexts life itself. Sentient beings are composed of the five aggregates, or skandhas: matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness.
Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.” They could also have included fish, for whom the evidence supporting sentience and consciousness is also compelling.
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