Stream of consciousness (psychology)
Stream of consciousness refers to the flow of thoughts in the conscious mind. Research studies have shown that we only experience one mental event at a time as a fast-moving mind stream.William James, often considered to be the father of American psychology, first coined the phrase “stream of consciousness". The full range of thoughts - that one can be aware of - can form the content of this stream.
Buddhism
The phrase "stream of consciousness" (Pali; viññāna-sota) occurs in early Buddhist scriptures. The Yogachara school of Mahayana Buddhism developed the idea into a thorough theory of mind.
The practice of mindfulness involves being aware moment-to-moment of one’s subjective conscious experience from a first-person perspective. In other words, when practising mindfulness, one becomes aware of one’s "stream of consciousness."
Buddhist teachings describe six triggers that can result in the generation of different mental events. These are input from the five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touch sensations), or a thought (relating to the past, present or the future) that happen to arise in the mind. The mental events generated as a result of these triggers are: feelings, perceptions and intentions/behavior.
In Buddhist teachings, the manifestation of the "stream of consciousness” is described as being affected by physical laws, biological laws, psychological laws, volitional laws, and universal laws.