Plants Are Not Sentient Beings

Plants have growth periods and annual rings; there is no activity of the seventh or eighth consciousness in their lives, and therefore plants are not sentient beings. Not being sentient beings, they have no transmigration. They are the circumstantial retribution (environment) upon which sentient beings depend for survival, summoned forth by the karma of sentient beings. If sentient beings possess merit, the plants they attract through karma will all be abundant and precious; otherwise, they will be barren and withered.