Sentient beings refer to all beings that have a true nature of mind and are endlessly reincarnated in the world according to the changing thoughts of the true nature of the mind. Humans/animals all fall into this category. In addition, the same goes for the creatures in heaven, humans, evil spirits, and Shura hells. The most common thing among all living beings in different forms is that although the physical body (or physical body) is not permanent, the self-nature is eternal. When a stage of life ends, the self-nature will be different due to the delusions that arise. The karma is reincarnated into another form of the same or different form. Because the self-nature is immortal, through practice, one can obtain the purity of self-nature and achieve Buddhahood by seeing one's nature.

Plants are a physical transformation phenomenon. They do not have their own nature, let alone reincarnation, so they do not belong to sentient beings.

The equality mentioned by the Buddha means that all appearances are illusions, so they are indistinguishable. Illusions are equivalent to dreams. All things are like objects in dreams. A person in a dream and a dog in a dream are essentially the same. Generally speaking, they are all illusions of thinking, there is no difference.

Kneeling down is a manifestation of respect and an expression of a single-minded intention to do good. Therefore, it is also the result of the germination of good roots in the mind. The reason for all living beings to worship Buddha is because they believe that illusion is reality and do not understand that "the nature of dependent origin is empty". To bring Buddhism to this world and save all sentient beings from the suffering of reincarnation, all sentient beings kneel down to show their respect for the Buddha and to show their single-minded devotion to the Buddha, which has nothing to do with the nature of the image.