How Does Consciousness Recall Past Events?

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning for a little while, you still do not know where you are sleeping; even after a minute or two you still do not know you are in your own home—this is a lapse of the mind consciousness. A major lapse of the mind consciousness occurs after the new five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are born: one is in a state of bewilderment and ignorance, having forgotten everything from past lives; without supernormal powers, one forgets for an entire lifetime. A minor lapse occurs after waking from unconsciousness, after sobering up from drunkenness, after waking from sleep, or at the moment the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) arises after death—whenever the mind consciousness lacks continuity, a lapse will occur. What does the mind consciousness rely on to connect with the past? It relies on its coexistent basis, the manas, and of course there is also the eighth consciousness, but let us not speak of that for now. When the mind consciousness first appears, it strives to recall the past; all thoughts are given to it by the manas. In the dazed and muddled state, it can only discern the objects before it, knowing nothing of everything that happened before waking up. The manas prompts the mind consciousness to think and to remember, and the mind consciousness then recollects; the content of the recollection is also dharma brought forth by the manas as its object. The mind consciousness continuously discerns and judges it, and thereby the mind consciousness recalls it. In fact, all the inner mental dharmas that the mind consciousness recollects are presented by the tathāgatagarbha.