The Causes of the Inability to Recall Previous Lives

Sentient beings lack the supernatural power of knowing past lives, so they are unaware of the causes, conditions, and karmic retributions spanning past and future lives. Only with this supernatural power can one know all the intricate causes and effects pertaining to oneself and others across lifetimes. After death, the five aggregates change and are no longer the same; the six consciousnesses change and are no longer the same. Thus, all people, matters, and things from past lives, along with everything connected to oneself, become unknown, and the web of causes and effects becomes even more unknowable. In this present life, the six consciousnesses operate within the same set of five aggregates, maintaining continuity and memory. Because the six consciousnesses can cognize the people, matters, and principles of this life, they can remember all dharmas experienced in this lifetime. However, in the next life, the five aggregates are not the original ones, and the six consciousnesses arise anew dependent on the new five aggregates. Having not experienced the past life, they have no memory of its people, matters, or principles and cannot recall events from that previous existence.

The manas (mental faculty), however, has continued unbroken since beginningless kalpas. It has experienced the people, matters, and principles of countless ages, accumulating habits and tendencies from life after life, resonating with the karmic seeds sown throughout those lifetimes. Therefore, the five aggregates of this life are continuous with those of past lives in terms of habits, afflictions, and defilements. If one does not practice cultivation and instead acquires new unwholesome habits in this life, these tendencies will grow increasingly heavier. The ālaya consciousness (eighth consciousness) has also continued unbroken since beginningless kalpas and will never cease to exist in future lives. Thus, the self of this life and the self of past lives are definitely interconnected, not unrelated. In our practice, we should therefore give much consideration to the well-being of our future selves.

The attainment of the supernatural power of knowing past lives requires cultivation up to the Fourth Dhyāna. After achieving the Fourth Dhyāna, one can cultivate the five supernatural powers and attain them accordingly as one practices.