Mindstream (Pali: ''citta-santāna'', Sanskrit: ''citta-saṃtāna;'' Ch: ''xin xiangxu'' 心相續) in

Buddhist philosophy Buddhist philosophy is the ancient Indian Indian philosophy, philosophical system that developed within the religio-philosophical tradition of Buddhism. It comprises all the Philosophy, philosophical investigations and Buddhist logico-episte ...

is the moment-to-moment continuum of sense impressions and mental phenomena ( citta), which is also described as continuing from one life to another. Often described as a "stream of mind" or "mental continuum," the mindstream is not a static entity but a dynamic flow of arising and passing mental phenomena, which refers as a string of passing moments that happen either in the same lifetime or in the transitional period between one life and another.Buswell, Robert E; Lopez, Donald S. ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism,'' p. 196. Princeton University Press, Nov 24, 2013.

Definition

' (Sanskrit), literally "the stream of mind", is the continuum, succession, or flow of succeeding moments of

mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

awareness In philosophy and psychology, awareness is the perception or knowledge of something. The concept is often synonymous with consciousness. However, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it, such as in the case of bli ...

. Similarly, the mindstream is the ongoing flow of conscious experience, even though each individual moment of consciousness ceases as the next arises. It provides a continuity of mentation in the absence of a permanently abiding "self" ( ātman), which

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

denies. The mindstream provides a continuity from one life to another, akin to the flame of a candle which may be passed from one candle to another: William Waldron writes that "Indian Buddhists see the 'evolution' of mind i terms of the continuity of individual mind-streams from one lifetime to the next, with

karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...

as the basic causal mechanism whereby transformations are transmitted from one life to the next." According to Waldron, " e mind stream (''santāna'') increases gradually by the mental afflictions (''kleśa'') and by actions (''karma''), and goes again to the next world. In this way the circle of existence is without beginning." The vāsanās "karmic imprints" provide the karmic continuity between lives and between moments. According to Lusthaus, these vāsanās determine how one "actually sees and experiences the world in certain ways, and one actually becomes a certain type of person, embodying certain theories which immediately shape the manner in which we experience."

Etymology

Sanskrit

''Citta'' mean "that which is conscious". ''Citta'' has two aspects: "...Its two aspects are attending to and collecting of impressions or traces (Sanskrit: '' vāsanā'') cf. '' vijñāna''." ' or ''santāna'' (Sanskrit) means "eternal", "continuum", "a series of momentary events" or "life-stream".

Tibetan

''Citta'' is often rendered as ''sems'' in Tibetan and saṃtāna corresponds to ''rgyud''. is therefore rendered ''sems rgyud.'' ''Rgyud'' is the term that Tibetan translators (Tibetan: ''lotsawa'') employed to render the Sanskrit term "''

tantra Tantra (; ) is an esoteric yogic tradition that developed on the India, Indian subcontinent beginning in the middle of the 1st millennium CE, first within Shaivism and later in Buddhism. The term ''tantra'', in the Greater India, Indian tr ...

''". ''Thugs-rgyud'' is a synonym for ''sems rgyud''.

Chinese, Korean and Japanese

The Chinese equivalent of Sanskrit ''citta-saṃtāna'' and Tibetan ''sems-kyi rgyud'' ("mindstream") is ''xin xiangxu'' (). According to the '' Digital Dictionary of Buddhism'', ''xīn xiāngxù'' means "continuance of the mental stream" (from Sanskrit ''citta-saṃtāna'' or ''citta-saṃtati''), contrasted with ''wú xiàngxù'' 無相續 "no continuity of the mental stream" (from ''asaṃtāna'' or ''asaṃdhi'') and ''shì xiāngxù'' 識相續 "

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which ...

" (from ''vijñāna-saṃtāna''). This compound combines ''xin'' 心 "heart; mind; thought; conscience; core" and ''xiangxu'' "succeed each other", with ''xiang'' 相 "form, appearance, countenance, phenomenon" and ''xu'' 續 or 续 "continue; carry on; succeed". Thus it means "the continuum of mind and phenomena". ''Xin xiangxu'' is pronounced ''sim sangsok'' in Korean and ''shin sōzoku'' in Japanese.

Origins and development

Buddhists in India regard the notion of ''citta-santāna'' developed in later Yogacara-thought, where ''citta-santāna'' replaced the notion of

ālayavijñāna The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. ''aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ'') are a classification developed in the tradition of the Yogacara, Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental ...

, the store-house consciousness in which the karmic seeds were stored. This means that karma and kleshas (states of mental torment) both act to pass our transformation to the following life not a "permanent, unchanging, transmigrating entity", like the atman, but a series of momentary consciousnesses. Lusthaus describes the development and doctrinal relationships of the store consciousness (''ālaya-vijñāna'') and

Buddha nature In Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist paths to liberation, soteriology, Buddha-nature (Chinese language, Chinese: , Japanese language, Japanese: , , Sanskrit: ) is the innate potential for all Sentient beings (Buddhism), sentient beings to bec ...

(''tathāgatagarbha'') in

Yogācāra Yogachara (, IAST: ') is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation, as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā). ...

. To avoid reification of the ''ālaya-vijñāna'', Dharmakīrti (fl. 7th century) wrote a treatise on the nature of the mind stream in his ''Substantiation of Other mind streams'' (''Saṃtãnãntarasiddhi''). According to Dharmakirti the mind stream was beginningless temporal sequence. The notion of mind stream was further developed in Vajrayāna (tantric Buddhism), where "mind stream" (''sems-rgyud'') may be understood as a stream of succeeding moments, within a lifetime, but also in-between lifetimes. The 14th Dalai Lama holds it to be a continuum of consciousness, extending over succeeding lifetimes, though without a self or soul.

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