Mindstream

Mindstream is a term used in Buddhist philosophy and in some modern discussions to describe the continuous flow of mental phenomena from moment to moment. The compound combines mind and stream to convey a succession of arise-and-pass mental events, rather than a single static state.

In classical Buddhist thought, mindstream—often rendered in Pali as citta-santāna or simply santāna—refers to the uninterrupted sequence of mental moments that constitute experiential awareness. This continuum is central to doctrines of impermanence (anicca) and no-self (anattā): while individual mental events arise and cease, the stream persists through time, sustaining cognitive and perceptual continuity and, in many traditions, karmic conditioning across lifetimes. There is no enduring self that sits behind the stream.

In the Yogacara school, the mindstream is coordinated by the storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijñāna), which bears seeds (bīja) of past experiences that influence present mental states. The concept helps explain how experiences are carried forward and how craving, habit, and memory shape ongoing cognition.

In Western philosophy and literature, the term "mindstream" is sometimes used synonymously with "stream of consciousness" to depict the continuous flow of thoughts in a subjectively experienced mind, though this usage is not doctrinal and differs from Buddhist interpretive framework.

Today, the term appears in meditation teachings and some psychological discussions as a way of describing the flux of attention and mental content during practice. Critics note that "mindstream" can be ambiguous outside specific doctrinal contexts, and there is no single universally accepted definition across traditions.