In zen meditation practice, you face the wall and hope that in this process of yielding you face yourself and realize who and what you really are. The basic impulse in Mahayana Buddhism is proclaimed in the vow to save all beings. The translation of the vow of the bodhisattva that I first heard years ago referred to all "sentient" beings: people and perhaps animals. But lately I have chosen to drop the word sentient from the vow when I share it with others. I no longer think it is relevant....
I have looked out the eyes of rocks and mountains, and although I know the psyche yearns to give the world a soul, I am not totally convinced that there is not a kind of awareness in the mineral and plant world. In any case, I don't forget the advice of Nan Yan Huichung when he said that we should not hinder any being who hears deeply. When I drop into the stream of existence in a finely tuned way in the course of practice or ritual process, I discover how excluding is the worldview of the West, and I do not want to hinder that which hears the subtler voices of the Earth.