Mental "stream" Metaphors
The metaphorical use of "stream" to describe mentality is characteristic of but not unique to the Buddhist literature and worldview. In English for example, "stream of consciousness" is more familiar than "mindstream".
William James promoted the "stream of consciousness" with its particular nomenclature, some state drawn from Bain (refer following), whilst immersed in Buddhist studies and the accompanying protracted spiritual discipline of vipaśyanā, as related by Wallace (2003):
Buddhologist Roger R. Jackson similarly portrays Buddhist meditation as a type of ritual act (Jackson 1999:231). While such characterizations are certainly valid for some types of Buddhist meditation, they are profoundly misleading for the practices of meditative quiescence (samatha) and contemplative insight (vipasyana), which are the two core modes of Buddhist meditative training. Techniques of meditative quiescence entail the rigorous cultivation of attentional stability and vividness, methods having a strong bearing on William James’s psychological theories of attention (Wallace 1998, 1999a).
Read more about this topic: Mindstream
Famous quotes containing the words mental, stream and/or metaphors:
“The tranquility and peace that a scholar needs is something as sweet and exhilarating as love. Unspeakable joys are showered on us by the exertion of our mental faculties; the quest of ideas, and the tranquil contemplation of knowledge; delights indescribable, because purely intellectual and impalpable to our senses.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“I have ventured
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride
At length broke under me and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream that must forever hide me.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“This fellow mixes his metaphors the way a toper does his drinks and, I daresay, gets just as tipsy on them.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)