Manas Has a Memory Function, Yet Cannot Recollect

Many people have had this experience: upon arriving at a certain place, they suddenly feel that they have been there before, yet they cannot recall when. Later, upon careful reflection, it seems they have never actually been there. But why does this feeling arise? Moreover, some people, upon seeing someone they have never met, also feel that this person seems very familiar, as if they had known them long ago. What is going on?

These phenomena show that the manas possesses a memory function—it simply cannot recollect; recollection is the function of the mind consciousness. But the people and events of past lives were never experienced by the mind consciousness, so the mind consciousness does not know them, because the mind consciousness cannot go on to later lives; the mind consciousness of each life is new, with no continuity connecting it to previous lives. The manas, however, is unborn and unceasing, life after life, and is forever connected to the previous lives of the five-aggregate body, and thus knows the people and events of the five-aggregate body's past lives. Therefore, when in this life one arrives at a certain place, the manas knows that it has experienced it, and there is a special feeling; the mind consciousness then feels a sense of familiarity and specialness, but does not know why. The manas knows yet cannot express it. The same applies to meeting certain people. This shows that the manas has the capacity to remember, but because it cannot express, it cannot recollect.