Sentient Beings

Earth — A Very Crowded Little Planet

Earth: the 7.7-billion-headed Hydra

And that’s only counting humans. There are, and please hold on to your hat or seat or whatever you need to hold on to for here it comes: there are 350,000 species of beetles on this planet. Some actually peg that number as high as 1.5 million. Species. That’s species. Yes species. 350,000 for sure, they say. Maybe five times that. Counting all life, fauna and flora, scientists estimate a total of 8.7 million species — beetles have grabbed an impolitely large slice of that pie, methinks.

And who knows how many individual beetles there are per species. Some do, of course, but I mean among us mortals. Actually, this might give you a sense of numbers: they (the selfsame anonymous scientists) have found that there can be as many as 25 million wireworms (larvae of click beetles) per acre of infested soil — and many soils (can soil be plural?) are. And there are a lot of those soils (times 25 million). And that’s only one species of one insect (beetles). 349,999 beetle species to go.

Some locus swarms hold up to a billion individuals. No wonder there’s never food enough for all of them.

There are 200 million insects for every human being; another way to put it: there are 300 pounds of insect per pound of human. Imagine if there were an insect McDonalds, this figure would triple the topple.

Point though: our planet is a very crowded place. Yes, of course the number is finite, it has to be — there’s no such thing as a physical infinite, but it is so highly finite that it sure flirts with the in-ditto.

Which brings me to the point I’d like to make: the Bodhisattva Vow and holy Promise: to, even if enlightened, not take that final step into Nirvana until all sentient beings in the universe are enlightened and safely across the river of ignorance and into their respective Nirvanas.

What is a sentient being? Buddhist scripture is not entirely in sync on this point. All agree that humans (of course) and animals (including insects) are sentient; but some also hold (rightly I believe) that plants, too, are aware, i.e., sentient — they know where the sun is and can turn toward her, don’t they? Isn’t that sentience of sorts?

Considering the big picture, though, this might be splitting hairs.

The big picture is: I guess (as in am convinced) that the number of inhabited planets in this universe far outstrips the number of sentient beings on our home planet. And there’s nothing that says that each of those planets is not as richly endowed, life-wise, as Earth.

Which gives us this bottom line: there are a lot of sentient beings in this universe — all to see Nirvana before you, the Bodhisattva, do.

Why do I, in my heart of hearts, believe that this vow is purely symbolic or metaphorical (or even romantic) rather than actual?

Because I don’t think Time can stretch that far; it is not that elastic. And neither is Space: I think that the universe will eventually stop expanding — having stretched space to the limit — and then begin contracting (again) back into nothingness, whence it came. And I believe that this universal U-turn will take place way, way, way before even an infinitesimal percentage of sentient life is Nirvana based.

Or, or, or…

One day, some giant being will hit the enlightenment jackpot and the universe will simply vanish — leaving a lot of surprised exclamation points and question marks in its now non-existent wake.

One prays.

© Wolfstuff

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