Sentient – term used to describe living beings that can experience suffering (as in sentient being).  In Eastern thought this attribute is given to living beings other than humans.  Some lineages of Buddhism take this to the extreme.

An example of this extreme view might be in the movie Seven Years in Tibet, when the monks worked painstakingly and slowly in digging a foundation for their building so that they would not kill the worms that were in the ground.

Much of this Buddhist thought connects with the concept of reincarnation.  In “Seven Years,” the construction worker states, “This worm could have been your mother.”