"Sentient being." （1） All beings. In Buddhist scriptures， sentient beings are mentioned in contrast to buddhas， as those who are still bound in the suffering of sam!sa^ra， who are not yet enlightened; in this meaning， synonymous with 凡夫， which means "regular person，" or "worldling." On the other hand， it is the awareness that is present in sentient beings--exactly their "sentiency" which is the quality of buddhahood itself. Therefore there is the Maha^ya^na doctrine of "all sentient beings are originally buddhas." （2） After the time of Xuanzang 玄奘， this term was translated into Chinese as youqing 有情 "having sentiency." In the Nirva^na-su^tra， it is clearly stated that 'sentient beings' means all things， even those things that we would normally consider inanimate， such as minerals， and that all of these things possess the Buddha-nature.