Mindstream

 ( Buddhist Philosophical Concepts ) 

Mindstream (Pali: citta-santāna, Sanskrit: citta-saṃtāna, Tibetan: sems-rgyud, Ch: xin xiangxu 心相續) in Buddhist philosophy 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.

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Definition (Sanskrit), literally "the stream of mind", is the continuum, succession, or flow of succeeding moments of mind or awareness. 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 Thought in the absence of a permanently abiding "self" (ātman), which Buddhism 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 in terms of the continuity of individual mind-streams from one lifetime to the next, with karma as the basic causal mechanism whereby transformations are transmitted from one life to the next."

According to Waldron, "The 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."

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Etymology

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

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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".

Thugs-rgyud is a synonym for sems rgyud.

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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" (from vijñāna-saṃtāna).

This compound combines xin "heart; mind; thought; conscience; core" and xiangxu "succeed each other", with xiang "form, appearance, countenance, phenomenon" and xu or "continue; carry on; succeed". Thus it means "the continuum of mind and phenomena".

Xin xiangxu is pronounced sim sangsok in Korean language and shin sōzoku in Japanese.

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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 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 ( tathāgatagarbha) in Yogācāra. To avoid reification of the ālaya-vijñāna,

Dharmakirti (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 Vajrayana (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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See also

• Antahkarana
• Astral body
• Astral projection
• Divine illumination
• Divine spark
• Dream yoga
• Energy being
• Etheric body
• Illusory body
• Inner space
• Lucid dream
• Luminous mind
• Maya
• Mental body
• Mental world
• Metacognition
• Metempsychosis
• Mindfulness
• Mind-wandering
• Personal identity
• Rainbow body
• Reincarnation
• Saṃsāra
• Stream of consciousness
• Subtle body
• Svabhava
• Trikaya
• Yoga nidra

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Notes

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Citations

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Works cited

• John D. Dunne (2025). 9780861711840, Wisdom Publications. ISBN 9780861711840
• (2025). 9780198605607, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198605607
• Dan Lusthaus (2025). 9780700711864, Psychology Press. ISBN 9780700711864
• William S. Waldron (2025). 9780231123358, Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231123358
• Tenzin Wangyal (2025). 9781559391764, Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 9781559391764

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Further reading

• (accessed: Thursday September 21, 2023)

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External links

• Rebirth: what happens to the body and mind at death?, a talk by Thubten Chodron
• Reincarnation, a talk by 14th Dalai Lama

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