Mindstream (''citta-santāna'') in
Buddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combi ...
is the moment-to-moment continuum (Sanskrit: ''saṃtāna'') of sense impressions and mental phenomena, which is also described as continuing from one life to another.
Definition
' (Sanskrit), literally "the stream of mind", is the stream of succeeding moments of mind or awareness. It provides a continuity of the personality 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 i
terms of the continuity of individual mind-streams from one lifetime to the next, with
karma
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means 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 descriptivel ...
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
vāsanā Vāsanā (Sanskrit; Devanagari: वासना) is a behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behaviour of a person. It is a technical term in Indian philosophy, particularly Yoga, as well as Buddhist philosophy and Adva ...
s "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 Vāsanā (Sanskrit; Devanagari: वासना) is a behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behaviour of a person. It is a technical term in Indian philosophy, particularly Yoga, as well as Buddhist philosophy and Adva ...
'') cf. ''
vijñāna
''Vijñāna'' ( sa, विज्ञान) or ''viññāa'' ( pi, विञ्ञाण)As is standard in WP articles, the Pali term ''viññāa'' will be used when discussing the Pali literature, and the Sanskrit word ''vijñāna'' will be used ...
''." ' 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 (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...
''".
''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
The project of the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (usually referred to by the acronym DDB) was initiated by Charles Muller, a specialist in East Asian Buddhism, during his first year of graduate school when he realized the dearth of lexicographica ...
'', ''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. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...
" (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
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
and ''shin sōzoku'' in Japanese.
Origins and development
The notion of ''citta-santāna'' developed in later Yogacara-thought, where ''citta-santāna'' replaced the notion of
ālayavijñāna
The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. ''aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ'') is a classification developed in the tradition of the Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental consciousne ...
, the store-house consciousness in which the karmic seeds were stored. It is 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
Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including '' tathata'' ("suchness") but most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' means "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-gone ...
(''tathāgatagarbha'') in
Yogācāra
Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...
. To avoid reification of the ''ālaya-vijñāna'',
Dharmakīrti
Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanfor ...
(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
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
(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.
See also
*
Luminous mind
Luminous mind ( Skt: or , Pali: ; Tib: ; Ch: ; Jpn: ; Kor: ) is a Buddhist term which appears only rarely in the Pali Canon, but is common in the Mahayana sūtras and central to the Buddhist tantras. It is variously translated as "brightl ...
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Metempsychosis
Metempsychosis ( grc-gre, μετεμψύχωσις), in philosophy, is the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The term is derived from ancient Greek philosophy, and has been recontextualised by modern philoso ...
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Personal identity
Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can ...
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Reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...
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Saṃsāra
''Saṃsāra'' (Devanagari: संसार) is a Pali/Sanskrit word that means "world". It is also the concept of rebirth and "cyclicality of all life, matter, existence", a fundamental belief of most Indian religions. Popularly, it is the c ...
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Subtle body
*
Svabhava
Svabhava ( sa, स्वभाव, svabhāva; pi, सभाव, sabhāva; ; ) literally means "own-being" or "own-becoming". It is the intrinsic nature, essential nature or essence of beings.
The concept and term ''svabhāva'' are frequently enco ...
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Trikaya
The Trikāya doctrine ( sa, त्रिकाय, lit. "three bodies"; , ) is a Mahayana Buddhist teaching on both the nature of reality and the nature of Buddhahood. The doctrine says that Buddha has three ''kāyas'' or ''bodies'', the '' Dharm ...
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External links
Rebirth: what happens to the body and mind at death? a talk by
Thubten Chodron
Thubten Chodron ( — De Lin), born Cheryl Greene, is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, teacher, and the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, the only Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Western nuns and monks in the United States. C ...
Reincarnation a talk by
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
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