From the fifth century BCE

Buddhist not-self — Continuity without an owner

If experiences form a causal stream, must we posit an unchanging owner behind it?

Early Buddhist not-self tradition Not-self discourses and Abhidharma analysis

Evidence-backed account

Indian Buddhist theories analyze mental life as interrelated physical and psychological processes rather than the activity of an independent, enduring substantial self.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Mind in Indian Buddhist Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Introduction; §1 History of the Issue
Open source

Later notions such as mind-stream, life-continuum mind, and repository consciousness seek to explain continuity and karma without reinstating a permanent self.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Mind in Indian Buddhist Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §1.1 The Not-Self Doctrine; §5 Theories of Mind
Open source

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