Sometimes rendered 'life-stream'. In Theravada Buddhism， this is the underlying stratum of existence that is used to explain memory and other 'temporal' phenomena such as moral accountability. It is described by Buddhaghosa and others as the natural condition of mind， bright and shining and free from impurity. Note that it is regarded as a conditioned phenomenon， not as a 'soul' in the sense of Western religion. （The Sarvastivadin/Mahayana treatment of bhavanga is different.） See also alaya-vijnana.