This morning I enjoyed my pre-dawn hot tub in a gentle, cool rain. I had on my new felt hat, which kept my head dry – and the rest of me was in the water so I couldn’t get any wetter. The clouds were glowing from the reflection of lights in town, just enough to show the silhouette of a large, leafless, Valley Oak tree just to the west of my hot tub. A large evergreen Live Oak tree formed a dripping canopy above my head, converting a gentle mist into large drops of water that splashed around me in the hot tub.

I was rather transfixed by the beauty of these two trees, marveling that while they appeared to be as stable as the rocks in the garden, they are actually very much alive and full of the mysterious “life force” animating all beings on the earth. In their own way they “experience” life – perhaps sleeping in the case of the deciduous Valley Oak, or in a dreamy wakeful state of the Live Oak. In any case, they are alive, growing, making and using energy, fighting off predators and disease, healing wounds, reproducing and perhaps enjoying life. It became clear that they were just like me, perhaps just operating at a different pace. It appears that live moves more slowly for them, but it is always moving and always active. When they are awake and the sun shines, their leaves and green parts make sugar that is stored for later use. During this part of the day they make and release oxygen into the atmosphere. At night, they are still awake and working, but using the stored sugars plus oxygen to grow through the night. Luckily for us they make more oxygen than they use – our lives depend upon it.

As I sat in the warm water marveling about these two great trees, my attention turned to the many other trees and plants in the area. A neighbor shares space with a big, bushy palm tree that seemed to be reveling in the rains that have been so long in coming to California. As the day grew brighter at the approach of dawn it was clear that all of the plants were greener, freshers, more flexible and perhaps happier than they appeared a couple of weeks ago before the rains settled in for the winder. I don’t know if plants can experience “happiness” or “joy” – but it sure looked like it to me.

I wonder if they have an “experience”, I wonder if they have anything approaching “awareness” at any level; or are they just chemically powered machines? I even wonder if they are separate from us, or if they are truly an integral part of something like a larger, global, organism described by all of DNA/RNA on this tiny blue ball we call home. Do the trees “experience” this shared life similarly to my other organs, such as my liver? Is my liver alive? Sort of… but it is not independent of the rest of “me”. The same applies to all of my body parts – they are clearly alive, clearly react to their environment, but only “experience” anything as a part of the whole. There “experience” seems to be associated with my mind’s experiences, not theirs. Are they “sentient” or just part of a sentient being?

According to one source I found on the Internet, sentient describes a being that can feel pleasure and pain. Clearly, not all parts of my being share in those experiences. I am not even sure if my liver, or hand, can experience pain. They can certainly be damaged, injured or become diseased – but it seems that the “feeling” of pain is somewhere else, it seems that it is my mind. If that is true, then the “me” that is made up of all of these non-sentient body parts is really just the part of me that has feelings/emotions. If life on earth is really one big individual composed of all of the individual parts, then those parts of this “individual” (Gaia?) that experience feelings creates sentience for all of the other parts. There is no more difference between me and the trees as there is between me and my liver (or brain). In that case it seems to imply that the entire earth is a sentient being, and it behooves us to treat is accordingly. We are not separate, we are all part and parcel to the whole – the whole being everything on this little blue ball. For us to remain healthy and experience pleasure more than pain, we need to take care of all of the parts.