Mindstream (Pali: citta-santÃÂna, Sanskrit: citta-saá¹ÂtÃÂna, Tibetan: sems-rgyud, Ch: xin xiangxu å¿Âç¸çºÂ) 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.
' (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 mentation in the absence of a permanently abiding "self" (ÃÂtman), 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 i[n] 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, "[T]he mind stream (santÃÂna) increases gradually by the mental afflictions (kleà Âa) and by actions (karma), and goes again to the next world. In this way the circle of existence is without beginning."
The vÃÂsanÃÂs "karmic imprints" provide the karmic continuity between lives and between moments. According to Lusthaus, these vÃÂsanÃÂs 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."
Citta mean "that which is conscious". Citta has two aspects: "...Its two aspects are attending to and collecting of impressions or traces (Sanskrit: vÃÂsanÃÂ) cf. vijñÃÂna." ' or santÃÂna (Sanskrit) means "eternal", "continuum", "a series of momentary events" or "life-stream".
Citta is often rendered as sems in Tibetan and saá¹ÂtÃÂna 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.
The Chinese equivalent of Sanskrit citta-saá¹ÂtÃÂna and Tibetan sems-kyi rgyud ("mindstream") is xin xiangxu (). According to the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, xën xiÃÂngxù means "continuance of the mental stream" (from Sanskrit citta-saá¹ÂtÃÂna or citta-saá¹Âtati), contrasted with wú xiàngxù ç¡ç¸纠"no continuity of the mental stream" (from asaá¹ÂtÃÂna or asaá¹Âdhi) and shì xiÃÂngxù èÂÂç¸纠"stream of consciousness" (from vijñÃÂna-saá¹ÂtÃÂna).
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 and shin sà Âzoku in Japanese.
Buddhists in India regard the notion of citta-santÃÂna developed in later Yogacara-thought, where citta-santÃÂna replaced the notion of ÃÂlayavijñÃÂna, 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 (ÃÂlaya-vijñÃÂna) and Buddha nature (tathÃÂgatagarbha) in YogÃÂcÃÂra. To avoid reification of the ÃÂlaya-vijñÃÂna,
Dharmakërti (fl. 7th century) wrote a treatise on the nature of the mind stream in his Substantiation of Other mind streams (Saá¹Âtãnãntarasiddhi). According to Dharmakirti the mind stream was beginningless temporal sequence.
The notion of mind stream was further developed in VajrayÃÂna (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.