[bobibnoxx]

What is it?

Some Buddhist teachings talk about the mindstream that goes on from life to life.

What is that?

Is it a universal mindstream?

Or are there individual mindstreams?

If the latter, how does that work?

How does it mesh with the idea that nothing has inherent existence?

Are the mindstreams beyond cause and effect?

Or are the mindstreams like water streams and rivers?

Those can easily be seen to be mere effects of the causes provided by landscape and weather.

Are these mindstreams subject to this cause and effect?

Or is it better to forget about "life to life mindstreams" and just to work on what we experience now?

[yPuqQ248]

Wow, a lot of questions to ponder? lol

I think you will get a variety of answers here, depending on the perspective of the person giving the answer and what their practice entails.

But along with some Buddhist study, these are some great question to examine in one's own practice too.

Terma

[sesWaipunsaws]

Or is it better to forget about "life to life mindstreams" and just to work on what we experience now?

Yes.

[occallExtet]

Imo, the idea of 'mindstream' is similar to the idea of 'God', in that the question always arises: Did God create mind or did mind create 'God'?

One of many aspects of mind is it creates ideas. So does 'mindstream', similar to 'God', have any experienceable reality apart from being merely an idea manufactured by an active imagination?

[allvideO]

Or are the mindstreams like water streams and rivers? Maybe its like Milk-streams or Sodapop-streams? I like Strawberry or Bubblegum flavor fountains.

OK! Jokes aside! Concepts are numerous and will keep you busy for ever. IMO things have become Ineffable.
http://buddhism.about.com/b/2011/10/...-ineffable.htm

[overavantstandard]

One of many aspects of mind is it creates ideas. So does 'mindstream', similar to 'God', have any experienceable reality apart from being merely an idea manufactured by an active imagination?

Not for me it doesn't, seems like its about speculative views and opinions and "buzz words" and is irrelevant to practice here and now.

[Britiobby]

Maybe a read of this chapter could help?

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Analysis of thought-processes
In this chapter we will begin to see, in a more specific and
direct way, how the analysis of consciousness and the analysis
of mental states can really contribute to the awakening of insight,
and how such analysis can also be interpreted in our daily life to
change our understanding of our situation.
Why analyze the processes of thought or the processes of
perception? To answer this, we need to remind ourselves of the
general purpose of the Abhidharma – namely, to facilitate our
understanding of the ultimate nature of things, which share the
three universal characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and
not-self. In the analysis of thought-processes, we can see impermanence
and not-self clearly revealed, as two analogies from the
discourses of the Buddha show.
The Buddha likened the life span of a living being to a single
point on the wheel of a chariot. He said that, strictly speaking,
a living being only endures for the time it takes one thought
to arise and perish, just as the chariot wheel, whether rolling or
at rest, makes contact with the ground at only a single point. In
this context, the past moment existed but it does not exist now,
nor will it exist in the future; the present moment exists now
but did not exist in the past, nor will it exist in the future; and
the future moment, although it will exist in the future, does not
exist now, nor did it exist in the past.
The Buddha also referred to the case of a king who had never
heard the sound of a lute. When he did hear one, the king asked http://peterdellasantina.org/books/t...enment.htm#c37
Sorry for using this book so often. I only brought one book with me to China.

[elektikaka]

nothing has inherent existence?

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean to say everything is a mind-made illusion?

[Infellgedq]

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean to say everything is a mind-made illusion?

I think this is basic Buddhism namely Emptiness. What 'Mardale' means I'm not sure though.

[oyymoss]

Or is it better to forget about "life to life mindstreams" and just to work on what we experience now?

For me, anything that helps break up the heavily conditioned patterns of seeing, thinking, behaving, experiencing, acquired early in life, is worth contemplating. But keep your eye on the ball. Is all this pondering going to help end suffering or is it just more distraction?

[investor]

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean to say everything is a mind-made illusion?

I'm trying to understand what I've been reading about Buddhism and it also seems to fit the way I have always tho9ught about things

You can't find the thing in any of its parts, or in the collection of the parts, or apart from the parts. The thing is a label imposed by mind. It exists, conventionally, practically, and it works in everyday life. Beyond this, it is not real. This seems to be put forward as a liberating teaching. It seems to be a way to free us from being tyrannised by fears and desires about these things that don't really exist outside of convention.

The F A Cup Final or the Superbowl exists all right. But only conventionally. Beyond that, it's just a bunch of men running about in funny costumes chasing a ball.

That's what I meant I think.